


The Prescription

by Taliax



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Knows, Adrinette, Episode: s03 Rebrousse–temps | Backwarder, F/M, Friendship, Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Plagg Cares (Miraculous Ladybug), Reveal, Romance, Yes those tags can occur simultaneously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-24 22:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22065055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taliax/pseuds/Taliax
Summary: The prescription for Mr. Chan.  Who was Master Fu.  That he'd given to Ladybug.  That Marinette had given to Adrien.That prescription.In which Adrien uses the brain cell, and (wrongly) assumes that Ladybug has too.  Set during/after Backwarder.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Plagg, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 114
Kudos: 1024
Collections: Tali Brand Reveal Fics





	The Prescription

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year!! Thought I could squeeze one last fic into the decade but it ended up being the first of the new one instead. I've done a reveal fic from each side of the love square except Adrinette so far so I thought I should fix that
> 
> Inspired by the fact that I am a pharmacy tech actually, and getting a prescription filled for someone without knowing their name and birthday doesn’t happen. (At least in the US, I don’t know how London works lol.) I also did some googling and Asda’s is kind of like smaller british walmart it sounded like, any UK people can come attack me if I’m wrong. Anyway hope you enjoy this odd mix of humor and feelings

“Congratulations, Adrien. You wasted your one chance to sneak away from your dad on a trip to the _drugstore.”_

“Come on, Plagg.” Adrien tapped the side of his headphones, hoping it would look like he was speaking into them and not to the magical being hidden inside his jacket. Not that there were that many people in the Asda’s at eight at night to overhear him. “This is important. You know Marinette wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t.”

“Because she couldn’t just get those stupid pills at home?”

Adrien shook his head and sighed. Plagg wouldn’t understand. Honestly, Adrien didn’t understand either, but he trusted Marinette. There had to be a good reason for her request… even if hours of pondering the prescription hadn’t given him any clues. It wasn’t even written for her, but for someone named Lee Chan. Was he a friend? Relative? Secret boyfriend? There was no birthday or age written on the prescription, so it was anyone’s guess, though Plagg had snorted at that last and wildest theory.

“At least get me some camembert on your way out. Half of mine got smushed in your suitcase.”

“Will do.”

He popped out his earbuds as he approached the pharmacy counter. A few employees bustled in the back, looking busy even though the area was deserted.

“Hi, picking up or dropping off?” A short-haired employee who looked to be in her early twenties asked as she met him at the register. Her name tag said _Elaine._

“Uh, I’m not really sure,” he admitted sheepishly and unfolded the prescription from his pocket. “I haven’t been to a pharmacy before. My friend asked me to get this medicine.”

He handed over the prescription, and Elaine pushed up her glasses before squinting at the incomprehensible handwriting. Well, incomprehensible to Adrien at least. Hopefully the employee could read it.

“For mister Lee Chan, right?” She asked, typing something into the computer.

“Um, yeah.” That was one of the few parts of the prescription he could read.

“What’s his date of birth?”

“Er, I don’t know. It’s for my friend’s… friend,” he settled on. Hopefully it was true enough.

“I can’t fill a prescription without the patient's birthday,” Elaine said apologetically. “There are some over-the-counter laxatives the pharmacist could recommend instead, or you can give Mr. Chan a call and get his birthday.”

Laxatives? Adrien hadn’t been able to make out the medicine name, and he wouldn’t have known what it was for if he had. But no matter how confused he was, it didn’t change the fact that Marinette was counting on him.

“I _have_ to get this prescription. Marinette sent me all the way from Paris to get it.”

“All the way… from Paris?” Elaine squinted at the prediction again. “I’m sure they carry bisacodyl in France too. You sure she’s not playing a prank on you?” 

“I’m positive.” 

Marinette wouldn’t do something like that. She was always trying to help her friends out; she would never go out of her way to mess with him. And she’d looked so sincere when she’d handed the paper to him at the train station…

_“What I want more than anything else in the world is written on this piece of paper and... only you can give it to me!”_

He was still no closer to understanding why the prescription was so important—or why he was the only one for the job—but he wouldn’t let her down.

“I’ll just have to call Marinette. I don’t have her friend’s phone number.”

He winced as he looked behind him and saw the line that had formed. He didn’t know how much time he had before his bodyguard found him—probably a little longer than usual, since Kagami was covering for him—but he didn’t want to hold everyone else up, either.

“It’s written here if you want it, actually.” Elaine passed the prescription back to him. “I hope you can get it all worked out. It sounds like you’re a pretty great friend to come all this way for her.”

His face warmed a little. “I hope so.”

He thanked Elaine and stepped out of the way, sitting down on the waiting bench and pulling out his phone.

“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Plagg hissed from his jacket. “Pharmacy girl was probably right the first time. Pigtails is just playing some kind of joke.”

“Plagg, you know Marinette,” Adrien whispered, keeping an eye out for any eavesdroppers. Most people in line were on their own phones or otherwise occupied, though. “She wouldn’t do that.”

He popped in his headphones and began typing out the number.

“Adrien, really, you shouldn’t—”

“Come on, the worst thing that happens is Mr. Chan wonders why I’m asking for his birthday. If he really needs his medicine as bad as Marinette says, he’ll understand.”

“You are setting the bar _way_ too low, kid. This could be a disaster. I’m the kwami of destruction, I would know!”

Adrien quirked his eyebrow. It wasn’t like Plagg to freak out about anything other than cheese, and he hadn’t objected this badly to coming to the pharmacy in the first place. 

“...I guess I could still call Marinette, but I really don’t have much time, and she might not know either,” he murmured to himself. He shook his head. “Unless you want to tell me why you’re so worried...”

Plagg groaned, but offered no explanation. 

“Disaster it is, then.” Adrien shrugged and hit call.

At first, he thought no one was going to pick up. The phone rang and rang—but finally a pained voice answered.

“Nngh… hello? Who is this?”

Huh. That voice sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it. Maybe it was just the accent he recognized from his Mandarin lessons.

“Mr. Chan? This is Adrien—” _Marinette’s friend,_ he was about to explain, but the man cut him off.

“Adrien? How did you get this number?” Now he sounded more panicked than anything. And—

Wait, he _did_ recognize that voice— _and_ that name, though he now remembered it for the pseudonym it was.

“Master Fu?” 

Plagg muttered a string of colorful cheese-themed curses Adrien didn’t recognize.

“Is there— _urk—_ an emergency?” Master Fu groaned. “Is Ladybug in danger?”

“No, no, there’s no emergency,” Adrien assured the Guardian. “Except—well, I’m trying to fill your prescription. The pharmacy needs your birthday.”

“What?” There was a long pause, and then— “Why did Ladybug ask you to fill my prescription?”

“She didn’t.” Adrien’s brow furrowed. “Marinette did.”

…

Wait.

…

 _“No way,”_ he breathed, at the same time Plagg let out a groan loud enough to be heard by the people standing in line. “Master—er, Mr. Chan—is Marinette—?”

“Tikki is going to _kill_ me,” Plagg moaned. Which pretty much settled that.

He shouldn’t have asked. He knew their identities were meant to be secret, and this was the _Guardian,_ if he knew Adrien knew, he could take Ladybug’s miraculous—

Ice settled in the pit of Adrien’s stomach. “Don’t answer that. It doesn’t matter.”

Master Fu’s sigh crackled through the headphones. “She was careless. That much _does_ matter.”

“It’s not Marinette’s fault!” He burst, drawing a few stares. He hunched his shoulders and repeated more quietly, _“_ It’s _not_ her fault. You can’t take her miraculous, she’s _Ladybug,_ she’s the _only_ Ladybug and if you take hers you’ll—you’ll have to take mine too.”

“Adrien—”

“I mean it. Good luck finding someone else who can afford Plagg’s cheese addiction. And good luck finding another Ladybug who could do her job _half_ as well as Marinette.”

“Adrien, please don’t—” This time it was Plagg who was whispering, who knew Adrien would go through with it. It wasn’t the first time he’d threatened to give up being Chat Noir. Before it had been because he thought Ladybug didn’t trust him—but her secrecy had been because of Fu.

It wasn’t _fair,_ that he could have so much power over their lives, when they were the ones risking them.

 _“Adrien.”_ Fu’s tone might have made him flinch, if it wasn’t for weakness underlying it. “Nngh… you have a point. I cannot afford to find a new Ladybug and Chat Noir… and I do not believe I should. You two are a remarkable team, Tikki and Plagg’s Chosen. But this is still a great risk…”

“If Hawkmoth akumatizes me, I know, I know. I’ve been careful. I’ll _keep_ being careful.”

He’d never let his Lady down before, and he wasn’t about to start now.

“I know you will. Make no mistake, Adrien, Plagg and I trusted you with the cat miraculous for a reason. You have shown great care in the use of your powers.”

Adrien blinked at the praise. Sure, he knew Fu had given him the miraculous, in a roundabout way—but he’d never actually been told that he was doing a good job before. The Master always seemed to trust Ladybug with the important details. Like Chat Noir was just an afterthought—a sidekick.

“You mean it?”

“Yes. And… I suppose it was my fault that you’ve found Ladybug’s identity, as well.” Adrien could practically hear the wince in the Master’s voice. “I cannot fault you or her for that.”

Slowly the tension leaked out of his shoulders. He was okay. Marinette was going to be okay. They weren’t being split up, they were a team, and—and _Ladybug was Marinette and Marinette was Ladybug_ and he did _not_ have time to unpack all that right now. He still needed to get Master Fu’s constipation medicine before the Gorilla tracked him down.

“Okay, so… we’re good, right?” Adrien asked.

Fu chuckled. “Yes, Adrien. We are good. But we will have to talk about this with Ladybug to make sure she feels the same.”

“No. _I’ll_ talk about this with Ladybug,” he insisted. “I won’t hide this from her, but… let me tell her myself. Please.”

The adrenaline of confronting the Master began to drain from him, leaving him to realize how his and Ladybug’s partnership could change. She’d never wanted him to know her identity. He could only hope she would forgive him—and that she wouldn’t be too disappointed to find out who he really was, too.

Unless… she already knew? That would make more sense, considering her insistence that he needed to fill Fu’s prescription. He’d told her as Chat that he was going out of town for the weekend, since he didn’t want her to worry if an akuma attacked and he didn’t show. Had she managed to piece his identity together from that? Her mind could make the most amazing connections; it was possible he’d done something else to tip her off too.

He would have to worry about that later, though. He still had a job to do.

“Alright,” Fu conceded. “Don’t delay too long, though. And you said… _urk…_ you needed my birthday?”

“Oh. Right.” The reason he’d called in the first place.

“Nngh… well, I’m actually one hundred and eighty-six years old, but the pharmacy won’t believe that… Wayzz, what was my fake birthday again?”

“November twenty-ninth, nineteen forty-two,” a higher-pitched voice (a kwami, Adrien assumed) spoke into the phone.

“Thanks,” Adrien said quickly. “I better get back in line. Hope you feel better Mr. Chan.”

He ended the call and stood in line behind a mom and her sick child. Immediately, he was subjected to Plagg punching him in the ribs.

“Geez, Adrien, did you have to scare me like that!? You should’ve just threatened not to get his constipation meds! You didn’t have to tell him you’d give me back!”

Adrien winced and patted his kwami beneath his jacket. The woman in front of him was too occupied to notice, and who cared what she thought anyway? No one in London would know about kwamis, and he still wore his earbuds just in case. 

“Sorry, Plagg, I kind of panicked. I can’t lose Ladybug, or Marinette… or _both_ of them—”

“Say it a little louder why don’t you?” Plagg hissed sarcastically. “You heard Fu, so just chill out and get those drugs. You’ll have plenty of time to freak out over your girlfriend later.”

“Marinette’s not my girlfriend,” he said automatically, his heart plummeting. He already knew Ladybug was in love with someone else. Why did that hurt so much more knowing she was Marinette? 

Maybe because if he hadn’t been so enthralled with Ladybug, he might’ve the depth of his feelings for Marinette. Because she was so kind, and funny—in a different way from when she was Ladybug, but still—and always helping others like the time she’d helped him hide from his bodyguard, and she had the cutest smile when she didn’t think he was watching—

And he’d called her just a friend. _Multiple times._

As soon as they weren’t in public, he had a feeling Plagg would have a good cackle about that.

“Back with Mr. Chan’s birthday?” Elaine asked, snapping him out of those thoughts. 

He hadn’t realized he’d reached the front of the line… and he’d been so preoccupied he’d forgotten Fu’s birthday already. Thankfully Plagg was able to whisper it to him from under his collar.

“Perfect.” Elaine took the prescription, scanned it, typed some more things, and then finally smiled at him. “It should be ready for pick up in about twenty minutes.”

Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes to avoid his bodyguard, snag Plagg some cheese, and try not to scream at how stupid he’d been.

Well, technically he’d been right. He _was_ just a friend to Marinette.

He hoped that by the time he admitted to knowing her secret, he’d still be at least that much.

XXX

Okay. Okay. He could _do_ this. He’d had exactly thirty-six hours to puzzle out why Marinette had given him the prescription, and how to face her without turning to mush. 

_“What I want more than anything else in the world is written on this piece of paper and... only you can give it to me!”_

The paper led him to Fu, which led him to her identity. Was it too much of a stretch to believe that this was one of Marinette’s convoluted lucky charm-esque plans? Maybe she wasn’t allowed to reveal that she was Ladybug directly, but if he figured it out… maybe she thought Master Fu would understand. Which he had. Like all of Ladybug’s plans, it had worked out miraculously.

It was the only explanation he could think of that made some kind of sense. Anyone could’ve picked up the constipation medicine. But only one person would see “Mr. Chan” and be able to connect the dots back to Ladybug.

The thought had given him confidence—but he still needed confirmation. And to do that, he needed to talk to her.

Step one: walk towards her. He did this every day, as both Chat Noir and Adrien, but he still had to keep his legs from sprinting up the school stairs to where she was chatting with the girls in their class. He needed to be _normal._

(At least until he could find out for sure how much she knew. Maybe then, he could end this whole charade of pretending he didn’t want to spin her in his arms.)

“Come on, lover boy.” Plagg slapped him from inside his shirt. “You can’t stand around drooling all day. Stick some cheese in your mouth, at least _pretend_ it’s over food.”

“I’m not drooling,” he said, clutching the pharmacy bag tighter. _Not on the outside, anyway._

At least Plagg couldn’t see the lovestruck smile on his face, even if the kwami could probably feel his heart pounding. He’d thought he’d be too nervous to look at Marinette, but it was his first time seeing her _knowing_ it was her, it was her _it was her_ she was _his Lady—_ well his partner even if she didn’t want to be more than that—and the air smelled a little sweeter just for sharing it with her.

He was up the stairs. Perfect. Now for step two: talk to her like a normal human being and _without_ revealing either of them in front of their friends.

“Uh, hey Marinette!” His voice already came out too high.

Before he could figure out what to say from there, Alya was shoving a wide-eyed Marinette towards him. Why did she look so scared? It was just him… unless she _did_ know his identity, which was looking more and more likely. 

Still, her stress actually helped calm him—if she was worried, then he would set aside his own fears and do whatever he could to make her more comfortable.

“I was very surprised when I read your letter, but since it seemed to be so important, I spent the whole weekend walking around London looking for it…” He held out the pharmacy bag as the girls squealed behind her. “For you.”

Even if he knew it wasn’t _actually_ for her, he couldn’t drop any hints that he knew about Master Fu in front of the girls. He thought she’d feel better knowing he wouldn’t be so careless with her secret, but she was still so tense Alya had to guide her hands to grab the bag.

“Er… thank you,” she practically croaked. 

Clearly his plan to put her at ease wasn’t working, but he had no idea what he’d done wrong. Did she just want him to leave her alone? He could go to class and pretend nothing had happened… but he really wasn’t sure he could keep himself from melting around her for that long.

“Is it alright if I talk to you alone? There’s some, uh, information the pharmacist wanted me to pass on…” 

Marinette looked like she wanted to dissolve into the sidewalk. Maybe that wasn’t the best excuse, then, though it did make the other girls scatter with conspiratory giggles.

“Sure. Why not.” She sighed, head hanging. “I can’t humiliate myself any more, I guess…”

He hoped he’d heard that last part wrong, muttered under her breath as it was. He couldn’t think of any reason she had to be embarrassed. She was clever, she was amazing, she was _Marinette._

And for all that his heart pounded as he walked next to her, she wouldn’t even look at him. Maybe… maybe she was just as nervous about navigating this reveal? That thought was comforting, at least. This was new territory for both of them—but they’d do it like they did everything else: as a team.

“A… broom closet?” She finally looked at him when she realized where they were headed.

“Is that okay? I actually had something really important to talk to you about and I didn’t want anyone to overhear.”

“Right. About the… constipation medicine.” She groaned before forcing the fakest smile he’d ever seen. And he would know; he’d been Chloe’s friend long enough to perfect them, even ignoring his modeling experience.

“L-let’s just get this over with.” She opened the door, and he followed her inside.

He’d used this closet to transform a few times—when the bathroom and locker room were occupied—but even with the mops and trashbags shoved in a corner, he didn’t remember it being this cramped. Maybe he was just hyperaware of how Marinette (Ladybug) _(Marinette)_ was standing just a breath away. She smelled like sugar and cinnamon and now was _not_ the time to get distracted! He still had to pull off step three of his plan… 

Step three. What had step three been? Don’t sniff Marinette’s hair? See, this was why he usually left the planning to her.

“Um, Adrien?” She asked, voice squeaking slightly. “Were you going to tell me what the pharmacist said, or…?”

“Oh! Right.” _Wrong,_ he was _not_ here to talk about that but Master Fu probably would need the instructions just in case, so he dug the neatly folded papers out of his backpack. “She wanted him to have this. I don’t really remember what it says, I was…” _freaking out because YOU’RE LADYBUG._ “...y-yeah.”

She stared wide-eyed at him, and he realized he’d let his nervousness show. “I’m so sorry Adrien! Ugh, you probably think I’m such a _weirdo,_ asking you to get me—w-wait, you said the pharmacist wanted… for… him?”

Her mouth stayed open in a tiny _o,_ and he looked away to keep from staring at her lips. Even Ladybug had never affected him so badly before, but then again he wasn’t usually around Ladybug as Adrien, without an akuma to fight, with no more than a few centimeters between them, with no mask hiding the dusting of freckles across her nose…

He swallowed too hard and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Um. I know it wasn’t for you. There someone else’s name on the prescription.”

_Tell her tell her TELL HER come on Adrien, she probably knows anyway—_

Except… she looked surprised that he knew about Fu. Maybe she didn’t think he was smart enough to figure it out? But then why go through all that trouble?

“Someone… oh.” She bit her lip and fidgeted with her hands. “Of course. Right. Mr. Chan—he’s my… second uncle twice removed! Yeah! It wasn’t for me, I would never ask you to—I didn’t even mean to give that to you at all,” she blurted.

“You—you didn’t?” He gaped as his hopes began unravelling at the seams. “Then why—you said only I could get it for you…”

“I wasn’t talking about the complication—constipation medicine!” She slapped her hands over her face. “Ugh, I should’ve known this would be a stidaster—disaster! Every time I try I just— _agh!”_

Her shoulders shook; was she—was she crying? 

“Marinette…?”

The telltale shine of water leaked through her fingers.

Forget the plan. Forget _any_ plans. His Lady was crying.

He scooped her into a hug, pressing her to him and resting his cheek against her head. “I’m sorry, whatever I did I promise I’ll do my best to fix it, or even if it’s not me I—I’ll do anything for you, Marinette.”

She stiffened in his arms before letting out a breathy chuckle. “Because we’re friends?”

 _Because I love you,_ he didn’t say. Still, he’d do anything for her even if she _was_ just a friend, so it wasn’t technically a lie when he said, “Yeah. Of course.”

“Right…” She sighed, pulling out of his arms. 

His heart broke a little more at the hurt on her face. When could he be the one to relieve her pain instead of adding to it?

“Thanks for getting the medicine, Adrien. I appreciate it, really.”

Her hand reached for the door handle, and on instinct he reached to wrap his fingers around hers.

“Marinette—please don’t go.”

She paused, looking back at him. A few lingering tears glimmered in the closet’s uneven lighting, and before he realized what he was doing, his thumb was brushing them away.

“I meant it, Marinette. Even if you don’t love me back, I’d do anything to stop you from hurting.”

Marinette blinked. Her eyelashes were so long, and he wished he could kiss every one of them—and then he realized what he’d said.

His face burned hotter than ever. “I’m sorry—I meant to word that better, I still need to tell you—” How was he supposed to tell her he knew her secret _now?_ She was already upset about something; and now he was even less sure that he was supposed to know—

“You think I don’t… you have no idea,” she breathed.

He chuckled at the pink dusting her cheeks. At least no more tears lingered there.

“I have no idea about a lot of things, apparently. You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Adrien, I…” She bit her lip and looked away. “I’ve been trying to tell you for so long…”

“You have?” His heart rose. She had to be talking about her secret, right? She’d been trying to tell him she was Ladybug! She _wanted_ him to know; she wasn’t going to hate him—! 

She took a deep breath and met his eyes, just as he did the same.

“I have a crush on you!” “I know you’re Ladybug.”

Marinette’s face froze in a look of abject horror while the loading wheel in Adrien’s brain turned. 

And then, like the two halves they were, they simultaneously screamed.

“WHAT!?”

_“How do you know that—!”_

“You have a crush on me?” The dopiest grin broke out on his face, but he didn’t even care. Marinette had a crush on him!But… she’d just turned down Chat Noir again last week, and if she had a crush on _Adrien_ then…

She didn’t know his identity after all.

And judging by the rapid breaths she was taking, she had _not_ intended for him to know hers.

“This is bad this is bad this is bad oh _Tikki_ Master Fu is going to kill me! And take away my miraculous! _How did you find out!?”_

She backed him against the wall, looking every bit as terrifying as he knew Ladybug could be. 

He swallowed thickly.

“Uh. Is there any chance we could go back to the part where you said you had a crush on me?” He grinned too wide. Bad timing, but she already knew that stress did that to him. (Or at least, that it did to Chat Noir. Who was a completely different person to her.)

Her face flushed red. “Forget about that! You’re not supposed to know who I am! _No one_ can know! I won’t be able to be Ladybug anymore—!”

“Of course you’ll be Ladybug.” He took her hands before she could tear out her pigtails. “You’re the only one who could be Ladybug. I know that. Paris knows that. Even Master Fu knows that.”

“Master… Fu…? But…”

He watched her thought process play out in her rapidly shifting expressions, half-finished sentences, and frantic hand movements—some of which almost smacked him in the face, but honestly, he was just grateful she wasn’t trying to smack him on purpose.

Then, finally, her eyes met his in understanding.

“Chat… Chat Noir.”

He winked in spite of the nervousness fluttering in his stomach. “The one and only.”

He kept up Chat’s signature grin even as her face remained blank. _Please, please don’t be mad, please don’t regret it’s me…_

Then, finally, she let out a laugh. “Of course it was you. Of course I’d ask _Chat Noir_ to get me constipation medicine.”

“You _did_ say I was the only one who could give it to you,” he pointed out, still confused, but slowly relaxing. She wasn’t mad. At least, he didn’t think she was. It was hard to tell, with her face still flushed, her fists opening and clenching tensely.

“Because I wasn’t talking about the prescription then! Ugh!” She smacked her forehead. “I thought I was supposed to be lucky…”

“Maybe I rubbed off you,” he mumbled with a grimace. “Are you… disappointed, then? To know it’s me?”

That would be even worse than her being angry. He could understand if she was upset—neither of them expected to learn their partner’s identity this way, and there was their safety to worry about—but disappointed? She would only feel that way if she didn’t feel he measured up outside of the mask.

(Or maybe inside of it. Considering which side of him she’d had a crush on…)

“No, no, of course not!” She waved spastically. “You’re _Adrien,_ who could ever be disappointed in you? I’m just—processing everything. Yeah.”

“Do you need a minute? I can give you some space—”

“NO!” 

She practically launched herself at him—her arms bracketing his shoulders against the wall. While he _might_ have imagined Ladybug pinning him like this, he usually didn’t picture her looking so embarrassed about it. But she still didn’t move away.

“I need to know,” she said after taking a moment to catch her breath. “You said Fu knows I need to be Ladybug. Does he… does he know you know my identity?”

He nodded mutely, hoping she couldn’t hear his heart beating out of his chest. His legs had buckled slightly when she almost-tackled him, putting them at nearly the same height. Her face was so close, it was hard to concentrate on anything else.

“And he’s... not going to take my miraculous?”

He shook his head, then cleared his dry throat. “He’d have to take mine too. The two of us can’t be replaced that easily.”

A relieved smile broke out on her face, banishing the last of Adrien’s fear with its glow.

“Good. You’re irreplaceable, kitty. You deserve to know that.” 

Oh, he could’ve kissed her then. (But then again, was there a moment he wouldn’t?)

“No one could take your place either, my Lady,” he whispered. _Not to Paris. And definitely not to me._

“Of course. We’re kind of a package deal. You and me against the world, you know.”

When she pulled back enough to hold up her fist for their usual fist bump, he knew everything was going to be okay. 

“You and me,” he echoed. “Pound it?”

“Pound it.” She laughed and bumped his fist. It was weird without the suits—just being able to feel the skin of her knuckles against his set off sparks. He really was that hopeless.

But then her arm fell back to her side, and her expression turned slightly nervous again. 

“...One last question,” she said. “A-and I know it’s a lot, considering we just found out who each other are—or well, you knew, but I didn’t, and… Well. You don’t have to answer.”

“You know I’ll tell you anything, Bugaboo.”

For the first time, she didn’t tell him to stop calling her that. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign.

She took a deep breath, wringing her hands, before meeting his eyes.

“Do you still... love me? Even though I’m Marinette, and I turned you down for… well, you.”

A chain reaction of fireworks burst through him. He’d been the one Ladybug loved all along; she really thought he’d be upset about _that?_ Besides—

“You’re _Marinette._ How could I not love you?”

He had about two seconds to appreciate the stunned blush on her face.

And then she was pulling him down to crash her lips against his, and he was perfectly content to appreciate that instead.

XXX

Marinette and Adrien missing class was nothing surprising, honestly. Those two disappeared often enough that if Alya wasn’t the sounding board for all of Marinette’s dramatic pining, she would’ve thought they were secretly dating already.

But them missing first period? Today? When Marinette had (supposedly) finally confessed her love?

Nino could take notes for her. Alya needed _answers._

The locker room was deserted, which was a bad sign. That was the first place she would’ve expected them to have a heart-to-heart, but maybe that was too obvious? Too many other class-cutting witnesses? At least the bathroom was vacant too—so Marinette wasn’t broken-hearted, crying, and/or in danger of being akumatized. 

Probably. Though Adrien would have to be an idiot to turn Marinette down, it was still possible. Maybe she should check some more secluded hiding places, just in case Marinette had hunkered down somewhere to avoid butterflies. 

“Marinette?” She called, slipping into a quiet hallway.

Well, mostly quiet. She was pretty sure she heard _something_ coming from behind that closet door…

In hindsight, it probably would’ve been more tactful to knock. 

But then she would’ve missed her best friend making out with Adrien against the wall of the broom closet.

It took a few seconds for them to realize she was there—which was fair; it took about that long for Alya to believe she wasn’t hallucinating. They broke apart, red-faced and blinking owlishly. Or Marinette was, anyway; Adrien was too busy staring at her and _swooning._

Just _what_ had her girl written in that letter?

“Well it’s about time.” Alya pulled out her phone and snapped a picture. “You’ll want this for your wedding montage. You’re welcome.”

_“Alya!”_

She just grinned and shut the door.

(It didn’t open again for some time.)


End file.
